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Norman Lim Kwong (born Kwong Lim Yew; ; October 24, 1929 – September 3, 2016) was a
Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
player who played for the Calgary Stampeders and
Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...
of the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...
(CFL). He was also an active businessman and politician being part owner of the
Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are the third major professional ice hockey te ...
and serving as the 16th
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta The lieutenant governor of Alberta () is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the . The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the m ...
from January 2005 to May 2010. The son of Chinese immigrants from Taishan,
Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
, Kwong was the first Canadian professional
gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...
player of Chinese heritage. In addition, Kwong was also the first person of Chinese heritage to serve as lieutenant-governor of
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
. As a former vice-regal representative of Alberta, he was styled "
The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' ( American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certa ...
" for life. Kwong was the third Canadian of Chinese heritage to be appointed as a vice-regal in Canada, after David Lam and
Adrienne Clarkson Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation. Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 19 ...
.


Early life

Kwong was born in
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
on October 24, 1929, to a Chinese immigrant family. His father, Charles Lim Kwong, immigrated to Canada in 1907 and had to pay the head tax, and his mother, Lily Lee, immigrated with her family in 1912. Their marriage was arranged by their parents. They lived in
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...
at first, but moved to Calgary because anti-Chinese discrimination was less severe there, and Charles was able to open his own business, the Riverside Cash and Carry Store. Norman (Lim Kwong Yew) was the fifth of six siblings. They were lucky to have both parents in Canada, as family reunion was restricted at the time for
Chinese Canadians , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = Chinese Canadian population by province.svg , image_caption = Chinese Canadians as percent of population by province / territory , pop = 1,715,7704.63% of the ...
and many children grew up with one parent.


Sports career

In 1947, Canada's
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...
was repealed for contravening the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
'
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...
. Chinese Canadians were given citizen rights for the first time, and barriers for Chinese in professional sports also came down. After playing
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
at Western Canada High School, Kwong went on to play for the Calgary Stampeders from 1948 to 1950 and, after a trade, the
Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...
from 1951 until his retirement in 1960. Nicknamed the " China Clipper", Kwong was the first
Chinese Canadian , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = Chinese Canadian population by province.svg , image_caption = Chinese Canadians as percent of population by province / territory , pop = 1,715,7704.63% of the ...
to play on a professional
Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
team. A powerful fullback, in 11 years of recorded statistics Kwong rushed for 9,022 yards for an average of 5.2 yards per carry and scored 93 touchdowns. He won the
Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
four times during his career (
1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
, 1954, 1955, and
1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...
). Kwong was a Western Conference all-star
running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...
and three-time winner of the Eddie James Memorial Trophy, in 1951, 1955 and 1956. He was named the Schenley Most Outstanding Canadian in 1955 and 1956. He was named Canadian Athlete of the Year in 1955. He was inducted into the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about ...
in 1969,
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (french: Panthéon des sports canadiens; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canada ...
in 1975, the Edmonton Eskimos' Wall of Honour in 1983, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Calgary Stampeders' Wall of Fame in 2012 (as a builder of that sports organization). In November 2006, he was one of very few of his contemporaries to be voted one of the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...
's Top 50 players of the sport's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN. Kwong set the CFL record for the most yards rushing by a Canadian in a season with 1,437 in the 1956 season. This record held for 56 years, being broken by
Jon Cornish Jon Cornish (born November 5, 1984) is a former Canadian football running back who played nine seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was drafted 13th overall in the 2006 CFL Draft after playing college f ...
only in 2012, though Kwong accomplished his record in fifteen games, rather than eighteen for Cornish. He was president and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders from 1988 to 1991, leading the team to a loss in the Grey Cup final in 1991. Between 1980 and 1994, Kwong was a part owner of the
Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are the third major professional ice hockey te ...
, having been one of the original group of six Calgary businessmen who bought and moved the NHL's Atlanta Flames hockey team to
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...
in 1980. The Calgary Flames won the
Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...
in 1989, making him one of five people whose name is on both the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup. The feat would later be matched by
Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
, who in an interesting symmetry to Kwong's achievement has his name on the Stanley Cup four times as a player and on the Grey Cup once as an owner.


Public service career

Kwong's public stature from sports helped him move on to politics and government. In 1971 he ran for the Alberta Progressive Conservative party in
Calgary-Millican Calgary-Millican was a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1971 to 1993. History The Calgary-M ...
. In this election, the PCs ended Social Credit's 36-year hold on power, winning all but five seats in
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...
. However, Kwong himself was defeated by longtime incumbent
Arthur J. Dixon Arthur Johnson Dixon CM (December 1, 1919 – February 5, 2007) was a real estate and insurance agent, and a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1952 to 1975 sitting with the Social Credit caucus in government and oppositio ...
who won by a 1,600 vote plurality. In 1988 Kwong was made a member of the
Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...
and served as the national chairman of the Canadian Consultative Council on
Multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
. Kwong was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta The lieutenant governor of Alberta () is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the . The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the m ...
on January 20, 2005, replacing Lois Hole, who died in office on January 6, 2005. Kwong welcomed
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
to
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
in June 2005 on a visit commemorating
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
's first 100 years in
Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominio ...
. During a private audience the Queen presented Kwong with the insignia of a Knight of Justice in the
Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...
. Kwong swore
Ed Stelmach Edward Michael Stelmach (; born May 11, 1951) is a Canadian politician and served as the 13th premier of Alberta, from 2006 to 2011. The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, Stelmach was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and fluently speak ...
into office as the 13th Premier of Alberta on December 14, 2006. Kwong's term concluded on May 11, 2010, and he was succeeded by Don Ethell.


Personal life

Kwong married Mary Lee on March 26, 1960, and together they had four sons: Gregory, Bradley, Martin, and Randall. He died in his sleep on September 3, 2016, at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife, four sons, and ten grandchildren.


Arms


Honours



* In 2006 Kwong received an
Honorary Degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...
of
Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor ...
from the
University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...
.


See also

*
The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' ( American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certa ...
David Lam - former Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
's first vice-regal of Chinese heritage *
The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' ( abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The ter ...
Adrienne Clarkson Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation. Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 19 ...
- former
Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm ...
and the first
Chinese Canadian , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = Chinese Canadian population by province.svg , image_caption = Chinese Canadians as percent of population by province / territory , pop = 1,715,7704.63% of the ...
to serve in the post *
Larry Kwong Lawrence Kwong (born Eng Kai Geong; ; June 17, 1923 – March 15, 2018) was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who was the first non-White and Asian descent player in the National Hockey League (NHL). He broke the NHL's colour barrier wh ...
, the original "China Clipper", former NHL hockey player and first Chinese-Canadian NHL player * Peter Ing former NHL goaltender *
Philip S. Lee Philip Siu Lun Lee Retrieved August 31, 2011. (born May 5, 1944; Chinese: 李紹麟) was the 24th lieutenant governor of Manitoba. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999 and received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. ...
, former Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba


See also

*'' Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice''


References


External links


Lost Years (Episode 2) CBC TV, August 27, 2011 & March 3, 2012


* ttp://www.lieutenantgovernor.ab.ca/ Office of the Lieutenant Governor
"Calgary Flames"
, ''Canadian Encyclopedia''.



* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060427015443/http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=14249 Historica Minute: Normie Kwong
"Norman Kwong"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''.
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwong, Norman 1929 births 2016 deaths 21st-century Canadian politicians Calgary Flames owners Calgary Stampeders players Canadian sportsperson-politicians Canadian football fullbacks Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Canadian Award winners Canadian football running backs Canadian politicians of Chinese descent Canadian sportspeople of Chinese descent Edmonton Elks players Knights of Justice of the Order of St John Lieutenant Governors of Alberta Members of the Alberta Order of Excellence Members of the Order of Canada People educated at Western Canada High School Players of Canadian football from Alberta Politicians from Calgary Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta candidates in Alberta provincial elections Sportspeople from Calgary Stanley Cup champions